Private school pupils have been advised by a lead HSBC lawyer to pick up a job
instead of taking a gap year to travel

For years it has been the established thing to do for pupils in private schools to take a gap year abroad in far flung places like India and China.

Once there, students volunteer in orphanages and animal sanctuaries as they look to make their experience stand out in their CVs.

But in order to stand out from the crowd, private school pupils should forget about highlighting top grades or exotic experiences abroad and instead look to work at JD Sports, according to Sandie Okoro, global lead lawyer for HSBC Global Asset Management.

In her view, a job in a sports shop or supermarket helps youngsters develop resilience and pick up valuable skills that will help them in the workplace for life.

Speaking at the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) conference, Ms Okoro, who acts as a mentor for HSBC, said: “It is very difficult to get into the workplace because it isn’t just about academics anymore. And in some professions everyone’s got the same academics, and they can speak five languages as well. What are you going to bring to me that isn’t in front of me on somebody else’s CV?

“I see all these wonderful places, they’ve gone off to China and built an orphanage, they’ve done this and done that. OK so your daddy is rich. That’s great. But when you worked at JD Sports at the weekend to earn some money? When have you dealt with the public? They don’t care where you went to school.

“Forget about the going to China and changing the world or whatever. What are you actually doing that’s different? I want people who can come to me and have had real experiences.”

She said a trip to Asia signalled to her it wasn’t so much the student’s effort but something that was achieved with the help of their parents.

Students might be better served stacking shelves than backpacking

Ms Okoro, who had a Saturday job at Marks & Spencers, said: “That says to me that it is not self-funded. If you come from a background where things are a little bit more challenging financially, you can’t afford and take that gap year and do that. You’re thinking how am I going to pay those university fees.”

She added: “Gap years have become the norm. You almost need that gap year on your CV now, it has almost become formulaic. I see lots of similar things of the gap years. I’d like to see the mundane and ordinary come back in.”

Ms Okoro isn’t the first one to criticise the idea of a gap year, which has been the subject of recent satire. In 2010 a three-minute video entitled Gap Yah went viral after actor Matt Lacey made fun of people “who seem to be leaving these shores to vomit all over the developing world.”

Instead, students should seek “old-fashioned Saturday jobs” during their gap years, says Ms Okoro.

Speaking to reporters after her speech, she said: “I don’t care how much you are overachieving … the real bit I like to see is people who have done that old-fashioned Saturday job, that old-fashioned supporting themselves bit.

“We all know that when you work at JD Sports or do something like that, people just treat you as an ordinary person, they are not particular about what school you went to or what grades you’ve got.